Movie Review: Aquarela

Aquarela ** ½ / *****

Directed by: Victor Kosakovskiy.

Written by: Victor Kosakovskiy and Aimara Reques.

 

Aquarela is a movie that I have to admit that I probably would have liked a lot more had I seen it on the big screen. The film is a documentary about the sheer power of water on earth in all of its forms. There is virtually no dialogue, no voiceover, and very few humans ever on screen. It is an amazing looking film that simply watches giant waves, glaciers, ice and its sheer power. It is meant to be a contemplative film – a film that forces you to consider the importance of water for the earth and its ecosystem. Watching the film on a massive screen, with great sound it probably would have had that impact on me. Watching it on a smaller screen, with more distractions readily available, it is hard to have that same impact.

 

On a technical level, it really is impossible to find a critique of Aquarela. The film looks amazing – quite simply it gives you a view of water and ice that you have never seen before. Because much of the film doesn’t have music, it also lets you simply hear the moving ice and water. The film occasionally has humans on screen as well – not because they are telling a story with them, but more for scale. The closest thing you get to a human story is in the opening 20 minutes – which is about people who are hauling up cars that have been trapped under the ice – and certainly does show the tragic power of it all. Occasionally, the film does use music – rock music normally – over the massive waves that you see from a point of view you’ve never seen before.

 

A film like Aquarela depends on immersion to really work – you need to be enveloped in it, unable to look away, unable to concentrate on anything else. In the theater, I really do think Aquarela would have been something to see. Unfortunately, I missed it there. And so, watching it all at home, you can intellectually know what is being done, you can admire the sheer technical brilliance of what you are seeing. And yet, it doesn’t envelope you the way it should, doesn’t immerse you.

 

In short, I think the chance to fully experience Aquarela is already gone now that its out of theaters, and on home video. It’s a film I admire, but didn’t actually enjoy that much.